Every visitor of Baguio City knows that the Good Shepherd Convent makes some of the best pasalubongs from the City of Pines.

But not everyone knows it was the late Sister Mary Assumption Ocampo who was the nun who pioneered Baguio City's "Good Shepherd" ube (purple yam) jam and peanut brittle.

Sr. Mary Assumption Ocampo, RGS, was the first Filipino member of the congregation of Good Shepherd Sisters based at the Good Shepherd convent in Baguio City where she was assigned in 1975. She was the driving force for the foundation of Mountain Maid Training Center (MMTC) that produces the well-known Baguio ube jam and strawberry preserves and other native delicacies.

The MMTC employs poor girls from Cordillera region to work in the center in exchange for a study program.

She used to come down to the Good Shepherd Convent on Aurora Boulevard in Loyola Heights, Quezon City for a visit and promote the peanut brittle and ube jam.

Sister Assumption spent a greater part of her life in Baguio sending poor girls to school through a training program she helped establish.
Sr. Mary passed away at the age of 102 in 2009.

(source: Philippine News Agency and the Good Shepherd Sisters website)